U.S congressman demans iraqis to pay war debt

trekkie · **Posted:** June 12th, 2011, 11:03 am

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... ional/i042954D00.DTL

The suggestion by a U.S. congressman that Iraq repay the United States for the money it has spent in the country has stirred anger, with an Iraqi lawmaker ridiculing the idea as "stupid" and others saying Iraqis should be compensated for the hardships they've endured.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican from California, suggested during a trip to Baghdad with fellow lawmakers Friday that once Iraq becomes a rich and prosperous country, it could repay the U.S.

That comment triggered outrage among an Iraqi public and political establishment that had little or no say in the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. Iraqis are largely glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein but blame the U.S. for the chaos and sectarian violence that followed the invasion.

"We as a government reject such statements, and we have informed the American embassy that these congressmen are not welcome in Iraq," said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh on Sunday.

So yeah, no comment on this. I'll let you guys go at it.

Adbot · **Posted:** June 12th, 2011, 11:03 am

Jay · **Posted:** June 12th, 2011, 11:25 am

Huh...
We should be paying them, for stirring up there country and killing their civilians. Why anyone would think that they owe us money is beyond me.

CreepyPirate · **Posted:** June 12th, 2011, 1:12 pm

Stupidity and arrogance. Can't think why the middle east isn't Americas biggest fan. :oops:

Shane · **Posted:** June 12th, 2011, 4:04 pm

You can't have it both ways. Either accept the corrupt totalitarian regime as it was or accept the cost for going in and cleaning up. One would hope that after this Iraq will remain a friend of the US. That should be more than enough repayment. A stable friend, even neutral country in the middle east is a good thing. The fact that Iraq is now stable (relatively) also means that US business is able to get a foothold. These two things should be repayment enough. Granted it doesn't repay the government but that was the choice made.

On the same note where does promoting democracy end? Egypt didn't need military intervention but Libya did. What's next? Syria? And on that note why not Iran two years ago?

The western world needs to get their foreign policy messages straight.

PS: Germany never repaid its war debts in full. Should the EU ask them too?

Duke Juker · RSBandB Donor since 07/01/2010

And this is why I believe the US should be more isolationist. We break are backs to "do the right thing" expecting to get back good things in return. But the more we try to "do the right thing," the more people hate us for it. We just need to let the world deal with itself and worry about our own affairs first. On the flip side, no matter how much any country may hate the US, they are obligated to pay back any debt they have to them. Just cause you don't like someone, doesn't mean you can say "Oh ya, all that money you gave us...we aren't giving it back just because we don't like you."

Btw, Shane, Germany is paying back it's debt slowly. If you don't recall, there was a big deal made over them paying off their debts from the first World War. It may be slow, but at least they are paying them back.

Warren · **Posted:** June 12th, 2011, 7:32 pm

Lol if you are going to do something that you think is right when no one asks you to do it, no one wants you to do it, and no one supports you for doing it, you don't usually expect something in return. Can't just break into someone's house and repaint their walls and expect something for it.

Putting the reparations on Germany was a factor to the rise of Hitler LOL funny that a war that was necessary was in part started because of a war that should never have even happened.

Adbot · **Posted:** June 12th, 2011, 7:32 pm

Ranging God · **Posted:** June 12th, 2011, 9:02 pm

They have so much money in oil I dont see why they cant pay us tbh. We did take out a genocidal dictator and all.

Shane · **Posted:** June 12th, 2011, 10:22 pm

Ranging God wrote:

They have so much money in oil I dont see why they cant pay us tbh. We did take out a genocidal dictator and all.

As I mentioned above, you get paid through new business opportunities and another stable state. That should be enough.

The US isn't the worlds police force, it's not your responsibility to go in at will and remove dictators. It is your responsibility to lend the forces to cases where the international community deems it necessary and there is a real issue.

As for becoming more isolationist, that would be a good thing. Fix the issues you have at home before worrying about other countries. As I said above I'm not sure on the rationale for Libya, if them why not Iran? As for Iraq, they're probably better off now but a war fought on bad intelligence won't be remembered in a positive light.

Earth · **Posted:** June 12th, 2011, 10:50 pm

Shane wrote:

The US isn't the worlds police force, it's not your responsibility to go in at will and remove dictators. It is your responsibility to lend the forces to cases where the international community deems it necessary and there is a real issue.

As usual... "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

Shane wrote:

As for becoming more isolationist, that would be a good thing. Fix the issues you have at home before worrying about other countries. As I said above I'm not sure on the rationale for Libya, if them why not Iran? As for Iraq, they're probably better off now but a war fought on bad intelligence won't be remembered in a positive light.

Yeah, I agree.

Jay wrote:

Huh...
We should be paying them, for stirring up there country and killing their civilians. Why anyone would think that they owe us money is beyond me.

Because America, honestly.

CreepyPirate wrote:

Stupidity and arrogance. Can't think why the middle east isn't Americas biggest fan. :oops:

Spoiler for Explicit:

We're just trying to find a way out of our own debts, with no regard for the rest of the world. We don't have foresight. We don't have sense. I want to move to another country.

CreepyPirate · **Posted:** June 13th, 2011, 3:48 am

Duke Juker wrote:

And this is why I believe the US should be more isolationist. We break are backs to "do the right thing" expecting to get back good things in return. But the more we try to "do the right thing," the more people hate us for it. We just need to let the world deal with itself and worry about our own affairs first. On the flip side, no matter how much any country may hate the US, they are obligated to pay back any debt they have to them. Just cause you don't like someone, doesn't mean you can say "Oh ya, all that money you gave us...we aren't giving it back just because we don't like you."

Btw, Shane, Germany is paying back it's debt slowly. If you don't recall, there was a big deal made over them paying off their debts from the first World War. It may be slow, but at least they are paying them back.

You went into Iraq on a mission of revenge. Iraq has no debt to you. It wasn't there bombs blowing **** up. Don't make out like it was done out of the goodness of your heart or you did it for the benefit of the world cause that's *******. It was payback. Pure and simple. You'd not have bothered if it wasn't for 9/11. Neither would the UK or any other western country. Cause if it don't effect us it don't matter.

Ranging God · **Posted:** June 13th, 2011, 1:42 pm

Shane wrote:

Ranging God wrote:

They have so much money in oil I dont see why they cant pay us tbh. We did take out a genocidal dictator and all.

As I mentioned above, you get paid through new business opportunities and another stable state. That should be enough.

The US isn't the worlds police force, it's not your responsibility to go in at will and remove dictators. It is your responsibility to lend the forces to cases where the international community deems it necessary and there is a real issue.

As for becoming more isolationist, that would be a good thing. Fix the issues you have at home before worrying about other countries. As I said above I'm not sure on the rationale for Libya, if them why not Iran? As for Iraq, they're probably better off now but a war fought on bad intelligence won't be remembered in a positive light.

And that is the problem right there. Bad intel, along with underestimating. Im not sure what you mean about Libya, but that is NATO(I know you know this), which is kinda screwing the US right now, leaving most of the work for us =\ (Correct me if I am wrong on this, been out of the news for a while.)

trekkie · **Posted:** June 13th, 2011, 1:48 pm

well technically, mostly french planes are over there. we're just firing lots of missiles from the sea.

and also remember ranging. almost 85% of the world did not want us to go into the iraq... please do not forget all the protest in almost every major city going "do not go into iraq!"

Ranging God · **Posted:** June 13th, 2011, 1:56 pm

trekkie wrote:

well technically, mostly french planes are over there. we're just firing lots of missiles from the sea.

and also remember ranging. almost 85% of the world did not want us to go into the iraq... please do not forget all the protest in almost every major city going "do not go into iraq!"

Yeah i completely agree. Personally, I dont know if it was truly bad intel, which happened to be very believable, or something else like the oil (Personally, I am not a fan of the oil reason.)

To me, we have let Iran go this far, we could have given Iraq more time. FFS we were already in Afghanistan...

trekkie · **Posted:** June 13th, 2011, 2:02 pm

i remember the speech bush gave about north korea as we started the iraq invasion

"north korea can be resolved through diplomacy."

wish i could find that clip on the news.

basically... we knew full well NK was making WMD, it's a diplomatic problem.
iraq MAY have WMD, and we go all in.

Earth · **Posted:** June 13th, 2011, 2:14 pm

trekkie wrote:

i remember the speech bush gave about north korea as we started the iraq invasion

"north korea can be resolved through diplomacy."

wish i could find that clip on the news.

basically... we knew full well NK was making WMD, it's a diplomatic problem.
iraq MAY have WMD, and we go all in.

How much oil does North Korea have again?